Almost every time Rupert Murdoch tweets, his 140-character posts make headlines around the world. And not in a good way. Less than a month ago he caused outrage by congratulating his Sydney tabloid for its coverage of the “bloody outcome” of the Lindt cafe siege; and he certainly has form offending Muslims.
Good for UK Chief Rabbi Sacks! "Let's put multiculturalism behind us". Societies have to integrate. Muslims find it hardest.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) August 19, 2013
But the 83-year-old media mogul’s tweet on Saturday 10 January about holding all Muslims responsible for “jihadist cancer” went further than his trademark political incorrectness. It is arguably his most outrageous post yet and has had a global impact.
Maybe most Moslems peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) January 10, 2015
“Maybe most Moslems peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible.
“Big jihadist danger looming everywhere from Philippines to Africa to Europe to US. Political correctness makes for denial and hypocrisy,” he wrote.
Guardian Australia understands there have been more than 140,000 tweets about Rupert’s tweet and that tweet activity peaked at 164 tweets per minute.
Since his first tweet on 1 January 2012, Twitter has been trouble for Murdoch.
He has been variously described as the man who put the “twit” in Twitter and as a “geriatric Whack-A-Mole character” who pops up to sprout a crazy view before disappearing again while we all talk about it.
In an age where the views of the business elite and world leaders are carefully controlled by the corporate spin machine, this social media dynamo has clearly never heard the words “think before you tweet”.
Not only does he not consult any of his advisers before broadcasting his robust views to the world, but he appears to have no internal filter either.
At what stage does his family or his company take his phone away from him?
The News Corp empire has been silent on the latest contribution from the boss. While his infamous “Moslem” tweet continues to be reported on around the world, we haven’t spotted a single mention in any News Corp outlets. No Murdoch loyalist has leapt to his defence either.
After the Sydney siege, Murdoch erroneously congratulated his newspaper the Daily Telegraph for being the only news outlet to catch “the bloody outcome at 2.00 am”.
AUST gets wake-call with Sydney terror. Only Daily Telegraph caught the bloody outcome at 2.00 am. Congrats.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) December 15, 2014
But the reaction to that one was minimal compared to the “Moslem” tweet which has been retweeted more than 5,000 times and favourited 2,655 times.
While at least some of Murdoch’s half a million Twitter followers may agree with him, the response from the world’s media and public figures has been overwhelmingly negative.
Notably, Harry Potter author JK Rowling has been widely congratulated for her response, and has sparked a whole new round of stories about the tweet.
I was born Christian. If that makes Rupert Murdoch my responsibility, I'll auto-excommunicate. http://t.co/Atw1wNk8UX
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 11, 2015
“I was born Christian,” she said. “If that makes Rupert Murdoch my responsibility, I’ll auto-excommunicate.”
Australian celebrities have not held back either. Comedians Adam Hills, Wil Anderson and Dan Ilic were forthright in their condemnation.
Hills: “Maybe all Australians lovely but until we recognise and destroy the growing pus sore that is @rupertmurdoch we must be held accountable.”
Maybe all Australians lovely but until we recognise and destroy the growing pus sore that is @rupertmurdoch we must be held accountable.
— Adam Hills (@adamhillscomedy) January 10, 2015
Anderson: “Can’t wait to hear Rupert Murdoch’s opinions on the Koo Klux Klan… ”
Can't wait to hear Rupert Murdoch's opinions on the Koo Klux Klan...
— Wil Anderson (@Wil_Anderson) January 10, 2015
Ilic: “I apologise for Rupert... so sorry...”
I apologise for Rupert... so sorry.. RT @lhipreed: @Aiannucci Perhaps we could hold all Australians responsible for @rupertmurdoch?
— Dan Ilic (@danilic) January 10, 2015
Some 20 publications around the world have embedded the tweet in a news report, according to the headlines feed on Twitter, and it has made news throughout Europe, North America and Russia.
You don’t have to look far through his stream before you stumble across another scandal, like the one about Egyptians being white.
“Moses film attacked on Twitter for all white cast. Since when are Egyptians not white? All I know are,” wrote Murdoch.
And who can forget this early one which so eloquently described his views on the welfare state.
“How did fat lady who fell thru street get to 400 lbs? Welfare, stamps, etc? Then leave us all with 20yrs immense health bills.”
Murdoch’s Twitter stream is also an endless source of typos and auto-correct fails. He once tweeted “universal anger with Optus’’ instead of “POTUS” or president of the United States sending shockwaves through the Australian telco.
In his very first tweet he employed some curious punctuation: “Have just. Read The Rational Optimist. Great book.”
But do we really want him to stop tweeting? As the editorial director of the New Daily, Bruce Guthrie wrote last year: “It’s like we are hot-wired into the brain of one of the world’s most powerful men” and we don’t want to lose that access.
